Bangor city councilors will soon consider a proposal from a local nonprofit organization aimed at mitigating the many used syringes littering public and private property across the city.
The Bangor Health Equity Alliance is proposing hiring an additional full-time staff member tasked with safely picking up and disposing of used needles in Bangor. The alliance was identified because it recently received its license to safely dispose of dirty syringes.
The proposal comes more than six months after the city’s public health department showed interest in collaborating with the state and the organizations that distribute sterile syringes to reduce the used needles around Bangor, which pose a public health risk in addition to being an eyesore.
Now, the Bangor Health Equity Alliance is asking the city to fund half of the one-year position using $28,990 in opioid settlement money, which the state collects from litigation with companies accused of contributing to the opioid crisis. That settlement money then goes toward efforts that fight against the ongoing opioid crisis, such as substance use prevention or recovery measures.
The City Council’s government operations committee directed city staff to reach an agreement with the nonprofit, which will later come before the full City Council for formal approval in a future meeting.
If approved, Bangor residents would be able to direct the harm reduction specialist to syringes that need to be collected through the Go Bangor app, by phone or via email, Patty Hamilton, director of the Bangor Public Health Department, told councilors Monday.
When the new staff member isn’t cleaning up needles, the person would educate the community on safe disposal practices and, upon request, supply people with safe disposal equipment such as biohazard containers and puncture-proof gloves, according to the proposal.
The new employee would also collect data on how many used syringes they collect for the city.
In addition to having the appropriate equipment to handle needles safely, the Bangor Health Equity Alliance is one of two organizations in Bangor that is licensed to distribute clean needles as a harm reduction measure. Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness in Bangor is also licensed to distribute sterile needles, according to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.
While it may seem counterintuitive, supplying people who use drugs with sterile needles protects them from contracting bloodborne diseases, such as HIV and hepatitis C, from used or shared contaminated syringes.
Other harm reduction tools include naloxone, a medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, and fentanyl test strips.
Dirty needles being left on the ground became a prominent issue after Gov. Janet Mills temporarily lifted the requirement that syringe exchange programs collect one used syringe for every clean syringe they hand out from March 2020 to August 2021, during the state’s pandemic civil emergency.
Today, state rules allow needle distribution programs to give a person up to 100 new needles, even if they have no used syringes to exchange, though the Bangor Health Equity Alliance still encourages people to bring used needles to trade.
Although Bangor has visible syringe waste, Gordon Smith, Maine’s governor-appointed director of opioid response, said the city’s issue is somewhat puzzling because state data tell a different story.
Maine’s syringe providers distributed 2.3 million syringes to more than 7,000 enrollees throughout Maine, but collected about 2.4 million used syringes, Smith told councilors in April. The Bangor alliance’s distribution site, meanwhile, handed out 672,000 syringes to 1,094 clients but collected 751,000.